ALL SAINTS DAY
Well here it is...we survived another foray into halloween and it's all saints day.Let's cover the halloween thing first...for 2 years in a row I've listened to callers calling in to my drive time talk radio condemn this "holiday" as the embodiment of evil...please!
It's halloween...that night when little kids dress up and go collect candy which they eat until they have a tummy ache.Adults partake in much the same way...except what ends up upsetting thier stomaches isn't a reeses cup.
Whichever religious nut that started the "halloween is evil" campaign should be ashamed...it's not like were dancing standing up.There is a history to halloween...and it's not a shameless leap into pagan idolatry.
For the record:All Hallows Eve.: What once served as a spooky New Years Eve tradition for the ancient Celts (which they called Samhain) was ultimately appropriated by Pope Gregory IV in 840 AD to serve as the daylong vigil preceding the Feast of All Saints. Even so, the Christians preserved the pagan festival's spooky trappings anyway. Cunning bastards.(thank you rotten-dot-com).
Now back to all saints day...
Our local public radio station celebrated today by playing music from musical saints that are no longer with us...I like this concept,honor those that have changed us in some small yet meaningful way. On this all saints day I'd like to thank the following:
Jimi Hendrix: Thanks for being a visionary with the guitar,but mostly thanks for being a visionary with a lefthanded guitar.
Janis Joplin: Thanks for being the hellified voice of the blues.
Jerry Garcia: Thanks for "ripple" and a thousand other gems.
Bob Stinson: Thanks for the replacements as I want to remember them.
Phil Lynott: Thanks for the stories.
Mark Dorsey: Thanks for the samurai vibe...I hope you got to see ghost dog before you died.
Johnny Cash: It burns,burns,burns...hope you're not.
The list goes on and on,but I won't.
Happy all saints day...may the saints preserve us.